Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

Hello: I set up my computer with account name "Cyndi", and then changed it
to "Gary"
The C:/Users/Cyndi Folder did not get renamed. I have tried to rename this
folder to C:Users/Gary But RENAME is not an option on Rt click of mouse.
I did manage to change the Folder name by Turning off "User Account Control"
but when I logged on all my folders at the top of the chain (just under
desktop) were empty. So I changed it back.
Any Ideas...
Thanks Gary

I spent 2 hours with online chat with tech support, but the kept giving me
solutions like..... Click on Control panel... User Accounts.....Change your
account name...
Sorry already did that, that is not the prob.... Then they offered Rt click
on the folder, click rename...I already tried that ...Log on as admin....I
am admin...Gary is an admin account....very frustrating!

"Gary McCready" <Gary McCready@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message newsDF212A0-0B8A-4FB6-9AB5-61431C066274@microsoft.com...
Hello: I set up my computer with account name "Cyndi", and then changed it
to "Gary"
The C:/Users/Cyndi Folder did not get renamed. I have tried to rename this
folder to C:Users/Gary But RENAME is not an option on Rt click of mouse.
I did manage to change the Folder name by Turning off "User Account Control"
but when I logged on all my folders at the top of the chain (just under
desktop) were empty. So I changed it back.
Any Ideas...
Thanks Gary

I spent 2 hours with online chat with tech support, but the kept giving me
solutions like..... Click on Control panel... User Accounts.....Change your
account name...
Sorry already did that, that is not the prob.... Then they offered Rt click
on the folder, click rename...I already tried that ...Log on as admin....I
am admin...Gary is an admin account....very frustrating!

Re: Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:16:00 -0800, Gary McCready <Gary
>Hello: I set up my computer with account name "Cyndi", and then changed it
>to "Gary"
>The C:/Users/Cyndi Folder did not get renamed.

It won't, no.
>I have tried to rename this folder ...

You're about to dig a large hole that won't be fun to climb out of -
this road leads to duplicate account stores, mangled names such as
Cyndi.^%4765, user accounts that don't load, etc. BT,DT in XP :-)

If you understand the background to this, it may be easier to accept.

When a user account is created, a unique identifier is assigned to it
that can never be changed. At the time the account is created, the
account subtree name is bound to that ID.

When you change the name of an existing account via Control Panel,
Users, you map a new name to the same invariant ID. But by now, many
applications will have cast their own data paths in stone, using the
existing user account subtree name, so that cannot be renamed.

So what you see is the new name when looking at the namespace level of
abstraction - Control Panel, Users, or the Welcome screen, or other
login contexts, and the general desktop UI - but when you drop to the
raw file system, you see the old user name embedded in the account's
storage path. If you drop down further, you don't see user names at
all, only the raw ID that was assigned when the account was made.

If you create an account with the same user name, as can happen in XP
but may be prudently blocked in Vista, the reverse happens. You have
what appears to be the same name, but a different unique ID is
spawned, and a new account subtree is spawned that is bound to it.

Normally, this subtree is named to match the user name that was chosen
when the account was created, but if that name already exists at the
file system level, a variant has to be used; usually that means some
gibberish is appended after a . in the name.

Crude attempts to bang these things together, e.g. renaming file
system directories in an attempt to get account A to work with account
B's data set, can be exopected to fail - if the OS's user security is
doing its thing. You can see why that would be necessary.

Re: Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

Thank you Ramesh and cquirke,
That was so much better than spending 2 1/2 hours getting no where!
I will let you knw if I can move all the files. I did create another
account, a tried to move the Folders, but Vista would not let me.

Re: Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

Thank you cquirk,

That was a very good explaination. I understand the program connects to
locations, and if I change the location it won't be able to find them. Makes
sense. I guess I will just try a little of Ramshes suggestion. I'll chnage
the account name back to "Cyndi" and set up a separate account "Gary" and at
least move the music and pics over.
This all started becasue my wife wanted to switch computers with me...... LOL
Warmest and wonderful regards;
Gary

"cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:16:00 -0800, Gary McCready <Gary
>
> >Hello: I set up my computer with account name "Cyndi", and then changed it
> >to "Gary"
>
> >The C:/Users/Cyndi Folder did not get renamed.
>
> It won't, no.
>
> >I have tried to rename this folder ...
>
> You're about to dig a large hole that won't be fun to climb out of -
> this road leads to duplicate account stores, mangled names such as
> Cyndi.^%4765, user accounts that don't load, etc. BT,DT in XP :-)
>
> If you understand the background to this, it may be easier to accept.
>
>
> When a user account is created, a unique identifier is assigned to it
> that can never be changed. At the time the account is created, the
> account subtree name is bound to that ID.
>
>
> When you change the name of an existing account via Control Panel,
> Users, you map a new name to the same invariant ID. But by now, many
> applications will have cast their own data paths in stone, using the
> existing user account subtree name, so that cannot be renamed.
>
> So what you see is the new name when looking at the namespace level of
> abstraction - Control Panel, Users, or the Welcome screen, or other
> login contexts, and the general desktop UI - but when you drop to the
> raw file system, you see the old user name embedded in the account's
> storage path. If you drop down further, you don't see user names at
> all, only the raw ID that was assigned when the account was made.
>
>
> If you create an account with the same user name, as can happen in XP
> but may be prudently blocked in Vista, the reverse happens. You have
> what appears to be the same name, but a different unique ID is
> spawned, and a new account subtree is spawned that is bound to it.
>
> Normally, this subtree is named to match the user name that was chosen
> when the account was created, but if that name already exists at the
> file system level, a variant has to be used; usually that means some
> gibberish is appended after a . in the name.
>
>
> Crude attempts to bang these things together, e.g. renaming file
> system directories in an attempt to get account A to work with account
> B's data set, can be exopected to fail - if the OS's user security is
> doing its thing. You can see why that would be necessary.
>
>
>
> >--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -
> Saws are too hard to use.
> Be easier to use!
> >--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -
>

2. When "Windows Easy Transfer" is launched, click "Next", choose "Start a
new transfer", choose "My old computer", choose "Use a CD, DVD, or other
removable media", and choose "External hard disk or to a network location".

"Gary McCready" <GaryMcCready@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:E761F7F1-F78A-442D-AE35-661E966526D1@microsoft.com...
For those interested;
From Stephen Chen, Microsoft Windows Vista SupportProfessional
(Now this dude knew where I was trying to go, and got me there)!!!

2. When "Windows Easy Transfer" is launched, click "Next", choose "Start a
new transfer", choose "My old computer", choose "Use a CD, DVD, or other
removable media", and choose "External hard disk or to a network location".

Re: Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 09:35:14 -0800, Gary McCready
>Thank you cquirke,

It's a plesh - or "tres ples" as the French might say :-)
>That was a very good explaination. I understand the program connects to
>locations, and if I change the location it won't be able to find them.

I must say, I find the whole namespace vs. file system thing to be
quite problematic, especially in Vista.

The file system comprises drive volumes with letters, and a subtree of
directories below these that contain files and more subdirectories.

The namespace comprises a subtree of namespace objects, many of which
are drive volumes, directories and files, arranged within folders.

The elements of the file system are automatically objects in the
namespace, and the way they are handled and nested will be similar.
Hence the glib explanation that "folder" is just a new name for
"directory". It is at the Newtonian level; it isn't always, once you
get into relativistic territory ;-)

Other namespace objects include computers, networks, and special
behaviours attributed to the contents of single files, collections of
particular files, or particular designated directories.

There's a two-way linkage between special folders such as
"(My )Documents" and the directory to which those behaviors apply.
There may be a forward CLSID link from namespace to location, and
there may be a backward Desktop.ini link from directory back to the
namespace logic. If these should diverge, things get ugly.

My problem with this stuff is where it's ambiguous as to whether you
are operating on the namespace object or the file system location,
especially for Properties that can apply to both.

For example, if I navigate from Users through to a user account and
then to Documents, and I rename Documents, am I renaming the
directory, namespace object, or both?

If I reach the same file system location by navigating from the raw
drive letter of the target location, instead of the desktop Users
folder, does the answer differ?

If I reach the same target by navigating from C:\Users, rather than
desktop Users folder, does the answer differ again?

There may be many ways to change the linkage between a namespace
object like "Documents" and a file system location like
C:\Users\Fred\Documents, but many of these will break things:
- the old location is still treated as the namespace location
- the new location doesn't contain the old namespace's contents
- CLSID target directory has no (or generic) Desktop.ini
- "special" Desktop.ini is left in the old location
- "special" Desktop.ini is now present in more than one location
- duplicate namespace objects appear in Users view
- filenames vs. namespace names get scrambled

Three ways suggest themselves as "OK":

1) Registry search-and-replace

Rigorous, but may leave incorrect back-linkage because the new CLSID
target doesn't contain the correct Desktop.ini, and the old file
system location still does. TweakUI in XP may do this better.

2) Rt-drag, Move

This is the easiest "clean" way to do this in XP, as registry tracks
this move (updating forward CLSID references) and the move also
ensures the correct Desktop.ini in the correct place.

3) Rt-click, Properties, Location, Move, (select location)

New to Vista, and may be safer than (2), but the ambiguity is; which
place, reached by which navigation, should one use to change the
Properties? I'd guess Users desktop icon and thence forward to the
target, to be accessing the namespace object with the least degree of
ambiguity. Next would be C:\Users\etc. that relies on the junction to
the "real" file system location in order to work.

Either way, important rules:
- be careful how you handle "Desktop.ini exists?" (overwrite)
- don't try to rename anything!

I like (3), because this maps to an existing file system location that
can be named before any namespace/file system ambiguity can apply.

In contrast, (2) will drag the old location using the original
directory name, which you then have to change through the
namespace/file system ambiguity that arises because that directory is
already being treated as a "special" namespace object. You have no
opportunity to unambiguously work with the file system directory name,
either before you move the object, or after it has been moved.
>This all started becasue my wife wanted to switch computers with me...... LOL

I just avoid the whole user account mess altogether.

Until someone can show me or point me to a URL that will tell me how
to set up ALL locations, UI settings, etc. for the new account
prototype, every new account is going to be born with brain-dead MS
duhfaults that will clash with the way I'd want things set up.

Re: Change Folder name for C:/Users/account_name

Hi,

I have a similar situation and wonder if Easy transfer can be used to
resolve it. I have a new PC with Vista Home Premium. When I first logged in
it asked for an account name for the admin account - I put in 'Dave' which
set up the following account:

Account name: Dave, Store folder: Dave, Account type: Admin account

Later I realised I should use a standard account for day to day work, I used
the User accounts control panel to rename the 'Dave' account to 'Admin', and
created a new standard account called 'Dave'. As has been discussed, the
store folder did not get renamed so I now have two accounts:

I haven't any documents set up in the 'Dave' account so could delete it if
that helps, but have installed a fair amount of software & drivers from the
Admin account.

Kind regards,

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback, Gary. F.A.S.T wizard did the same thing in XP. I don;t know why I did not think of Easy Transfer.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
> WindowsÂ® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com
>
>
> "Gary McCready" <GaryMcCready@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:E761F7F1-F78A-442D-AE35-661E966526D1@microsoft.com...
> For those interested;
> From Stephen Chen, Microsoft Windows Vista SupportProfessional
> (Now this dude knew where I was trying to go, and got me there)!!!
>
> 1. Click "Start", type "Windows Easy Transfer" (without quotation marks) in
> the "Start Search" field, and press "Enter".
>
> 2. When "Windows Easy Transfer" is launched, click "Next", choose "Start a
> new transfer", choose "My old computer", choose "Use a CD, DVD, or other
> removable media", and choose "External hard disk or to a network location".
>
> 3. Type "D:\user-account.mig" (without quotation marks), and click "Next".
>
> Note: Now, we may need to save the current user account to a certain folder,
> and please specify a folder and a name for it.
>
> 4. Click "Advanced options", make sure that the specific user account
> profile is selected and other options are cleared, and click "Next".
>
> 5. Thus, the specific user account will be saved to "D:\user-account.mig"
> (without quotation marks). When the transfer is completed, please click
> "Close".
>
> 6. Let's launch "Windows Easy Transfer" again, click "Next", and choose
> "Continue a transfer in progress".
>
> 7. Choose "No, I've copied files and settings to a CD, DVD, or other
> removable media", choose "On an external hard disk or network location", type
> "D:\user-account.mig" (without quotation marks), and click "Next".
>
> 8. When we are prompted to choose a username from the list, please type a
> new username, click "Next", and click "Transfer".
>
> Note: When we create a new user account, the original password is not
> transferred, and when we log on with the new user account for the first time,
> we will be required to create a password for it.
>
> 9. Thus, the old user account will be transferred to the new user account,
> and the log-on username and the store folder will also be changed
> respectively.
>
> 10. When the transfer is completed, please click "Close". When we are
> prompted to log off, let's click "Yes", and log on with the new user account.
>
>
>